Since 1995, Reliable Business Intelligence for Clinical Laboratories, Pathology Groups and Laboratory Diagnostics

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark

Where Are Pathologists When You Need Them?

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? National health insurer has exclusive national contract with a single billion-dollar lab company. Billion-dollar lab company creates a business division to manage how physicians order lab tests. This lab test order system requires physicians to follow the lab test order algorithms established by the national health insurer (and its national […]

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Protecting a Lab’s Access to Patients

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

TODAY I WANT TO CALL YOUR ATTENTION to a major issue in the lab testing industry that doesn’t get the full attention it deserves at most clinical labs and pathology groups. It is the fact that labs of all types and sizes are losing access to patients. Without access to adequate numbers of patients, a

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To Be Paid More, Labs Must Deliver More Value

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

GETTING PAID FOR LAB TESTS IS BECOMING A MORE URGENT PRIORITY for both clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups this year. Multiple factors are responsible for lengthening the collection cycle and reducing overall reimbursement for lab testing. Clients of THE DARK REPORT have followed our coverage of this development. On one hand, payers are getting

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Payer Contracts and Labs’ Access to Patients

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TRENDS IN RECENT YEARS is the exclusion of community lab companies and local pathology groups from a growing number of health insurer networks. In simplest terms, if a community lab is denied network provider status by the major payers in its region, it loses access to the patients it needs

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When Competing Hospitals Come Together

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

MANY ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUPS that have enjoyed contracts with one or more hospitals for decades now find those relationships challenged or disturbed by the spate of mergers and acquisitions happening with hospitals and health systems. This trend will carry forward for several more years. At least two distinct forces are encouraging hospitals and health systems

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New Threat to Community-based Anatomic Pathology

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

THERE IS A NEW DEVELOPMENT that may be off the radar screens of CAP, ASCP, and the various subspecialty pathology associations. It is the requirement for second reviews and subspecialty reviews of certain complex pathology tests as part of the laboratory benefit management program (LBMP) ready to launch in Florida. Enforcing this requirement for lab

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Survival Essentials for Local Labs

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

IF THERE IS ANY SINGLE SIGN OF TOUGH TIMES FOR LOCAL LABS, it is decreasing access to patients due to the exclusionary contracting tactic of health insurers. That tactic is the subject of our lead story. Unhappy with this tactic, a number of lab administrators and lab management consultants are starting to say: “I’m as

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Bridging the Schism within your Laboratory

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

THERE’S A SIGNIFICANT SCHISM BECOMING VISIBLE within the house of laboratory medicine. I am calling your attention to this development because this schism probably exists within your own laboratory organization. On one side are a very large number of pathologists, lab administrators, and laboratory scientists who have yet to acknowledge that the lab testing marketplace

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Community Labs Arrive at a Crossroads

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

TODAY, COMMUNITY LABORATORIES ARE FACING THEIR TOUGHEST TIMES EVER. My definition of a community lab includes independent clinical lab companies, hospital lab outreach programs, and pathology groups serving community hospitals. Never before have community laboratories had to deal with so many discrete market trends and financial setbacks as have surfaced in the past 36 months.

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Pathologists Face Unsettling Times

Commentary and Opinion by R. Lewis Dark / R. Lewis Dark

THESE ARE UNSETTLING TIMES FOR PATHOLOGISTS, particularly those who practice in a private pathology group that serves one or more community hospitals. Blame it on healthcare’s unfolding transformation and the new aggressiveness of payers to cut the prices they pay for anatomic pathology services. At the strategic level, healthcare’s acceptance of integrated care organizations like

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